Posts Tagged ‘Book of the Maccabees I’

‘Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, ‘and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’

– Jeremiah 23:29

A man can never become a convert unless he has been circumcised.

– Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth 46b

The Circumcised Future of Christianity

No son of a man may be forcibly circumcised.

– Yebamoth 48a

The coming age of Christian circumcision is meant to please neither Jews nor Muslims, but to please God and Jesus and to finally become a physical, as well as spiritual, member of the House of Abraham. All Christians are composed of a mind, a body and a soul. While God creates all souls circumcised from the start, it is now time for all Christians to circumcise their proud minds and to finally obey the Old Testament law by circumcising their male children from now on and unto eternity. This would allow all Christian Gentiles to share in the Covenant of Abraham and reap its many benefits and rewards. As the final, eternal law given to Abraham by the LORD God clearly states:

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

– Genesis 17:10

Christian Gentiles should never forget that their Pagan ancestors once considered the Jews to be a ‘barbaric’ tribe with ‘barbaric’ customs, most especially male circumcision. These same ancestors also practiced many different forms of sexual perversion including pedophilia and child prostitution. Here are just a few well-reasoned arguments using the Gospels as a reference as to why Christianity should now practice male circumcision, just like Jews and Muslims:

Theory — The Actual Gospels — Conclusion

I. In spite of later compromises, Jesus wanted all of his male followers to be circumcised, including Gentiles. — ‘For I say unto you, until Heaven and earth pass away, not one word or one letter will pass from the law, until everything has been fulfilled.’ – Matthew 5:18 and Luke 16:17 — Heaven and earth have not passed away, therefore circumcision is still required for all male Hebrews

II. Jesus never wanted to change the old law, but to have all men learn and obey them. — ‘Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them.’ – Matthew 5:17 — According to the law and prophets, all Christian males must fulfill them by being circumcised.

III. Circumcision is a law which all male Christians should teach and obey to the reach the highest seats in Heaven. — ‘Whoever breaks the least of the commandments, and teaches others to do so, will be the least in Heaven, but whoever obeys and teaches others to obey all of the law will be greatest in Heaven.’ – Matthew 5:19 — Even if circumcision is the least of the commandments, all male Christians should still obey and teach it.

IV. Christians must be as righteous as the most righteous of circumcised Jews to enter Heaven. — ‘Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’ – Matthew 5:17-20 — No Christian, no matter how righteous, can enter Heaven until they are circumcised.

By Christian tradition, the Gospels have always been considered the final authority when it comes to deciding the laws and customs of Christianity. For many centuries now, it has not been illegal for Christians to circumcise their male children. In fact, there is ample historical evidence that, even before Christianity, at least some Gentile believers in the God of Israel would have their male children circumcised. They were known as God-fearers, and were a growing part of the pre-Christian Jewish community found throughout the Greco-Roman Empire.

For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision.

– Titus 1:10

It is well known that, during the early centuries of Christianity, numerous Jewish-Christian families continued circumcising their male children while numerous Gentile Christians would also practice circumcision. It was only later that the Book of Acts, where circumcision was declared unnecessary, mainly through Paul’s influence, was included as an official part of the New Testament. All things being equal, the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospels carry for more weight and are more authoritative than the Book of Acts.

In short, the decisions reached by Peter, Paul, and others were in direct contradiction to the words of Christ and should not be considered the last, and final, standards of Christian tradition. The decision to allow the Gentiles to remain uncircumcised may well have been a hasty, perhaps even a temporary, measure in order to gain more Gentile adherents who would otherwise have been turned away because of their refusal to circumcise themselves. Tragically, Christianity became a completely uncircumcised religious faith over the course of about 300 or so years.

They covered…the mark of their circumcision and abandoned the holy covenant; they allied themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves to wrongdoing.

– I Maccabees 1:15

The Gospels carries far more authority than any other books of the New Testament. It is obvious that Jesus wanted all the old laws to continue as a basic part of his new religious movement. That is partly why the early Church fathers retained all of the Jewish Bible and called it the Old Testament. The Gospels message is quite clear, ‘Jesus came to fulfill the law.’ One of the oldest and most important of those laws is that of circumcision.

With that in mind, it is now time for all Christians throughout to world to renew the covenant of Abraham by circumcising all their male children and to eventually make it a standard Christian practice. Unlike Judaism, Christians may utilize modern medical techniques to circumcise their foreskins. The Age of Maccabee Christianity has only just begun. Be not afraid of preaching the importance of male circumcision to all other Christians and even non-believers. From the beginning, circumcision was meant to be a Christian tradition. The Gospels have spoken and let no man claim that either Peter or Paul should take precedence over the words and commandments of Jesus Christ Himself.

Keep in mind that the Jewish Maccabees are seen as Saints by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches. Because of this, a future circumcised Christianity would not be a new tradition, but perhaps one of the oldest traditions of the Church, such as the early Church of Jerusalem led by St James. They practiced male circumcision as a integral part of their Christian faith. Given the ancient history of the Church, it would be more than appropriate to renew the tradition of circumcision among many, and perhaps all Christians, throughout the world. The future of Christianity is Hebrew, not Greek, as the following Biblical passages clearly show:

In those days there appeared in Israel men who were breakers of the law, and they seduced many people…They covered over the mark of their circumcision and abandoned the holy covenant; they allied themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves into wrongdoing.

– I Maccabees 1:11-15

Women who had their babies circumcised were put to death, in keeping with the decree, with the babies hung from their necks; their families also and those who had circumcised them were killed.

– I Maccabees 1:60-61

The King sent messengers with letter to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, ordering them to follow customs foreign to the land…to leave their sons uncircumcised, and to let themselves be defiled with every kind of impurity and abomination.

‘Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, ‘and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’

– Jeremiah 23:29

in 1807, A little more than 200 years ago, the Abolition of the Slave Trade became a law in Great Britain. This marked ‘the beginning of the end of the virulent capturing and transporting of African people to be the slaves of the white plantation owners in North and South America and the Caribbean.’ What remains little known is the the fact that a mere ‘6% of the slaves exported from Africa ended up in the United States.’ Far more of them ended up in the West Indies, also called the Caribbean. It is claimed that the treatment of the slaves who ended up there was ‘much more harsh and abusive than in the United States.’

For whatever reason, the descendants of these slaves, who are now free, had a habit of identifying, and indeed, preferring what is called the Maccabee Bible, over the King James Bible, which usually did not include the Book of the Maccabees I and II. The Maccabee Bible did include these two books. Here is the history of the situation in the Caribbean when it comes to Christianity and the reading of the Bible:

In 1827 the British and Foreign Bible Society decided never to print or circulate copies of the King James Version containing the Apocrypha. The reason was that among the books of the Apocrypha are the four books of the Maccabees. The Maccabees detail the glorious exploits of Judas Maccabaeus, a Jewish guerrilla leader, descended from a well-known priest, Mattathias….The slaves of the West Indies came to identify as deeply with Judas Maccabaeus of the books of the Maccabees in the Apocrypha as they did with Moses of the Exodus.

– Reggae reveals Church involvement in slavery, by Paul A Tidemann

Reverence for the Maccabees, whose two books must have been studied by at some black slaves centuries ago, lingers on today in the form of a Reggae song written by Max Romeo. Reggae is a form of music performed by what are known as Rastafarians, a Christian sect which ‘began in the 1930s and declares that Ethiopia’s late Emperor, Haile Selassie, was divine and a savior, that Ethiopia is Eden, and that Blacks will eventually be repatriated to Africa.’ Their music is, in many ways, directly descended from the original folk music that the original black slaves brought with them to Jamaica from Africa. The lyrics to this song, written in 1976, read as follows:

Yu gave I King James Version;

King James was a White Man.

Yu built I dang’rous weapon

To kill I all de Black Man.

Yu sold de land God gave I

And taught I to be covetous.

What other wicked deeds

Have yu got in mind?

Tell me, what are yu gonna do

To stop dese daily crimes?

Bring back Maccabee Version

Dat God gave to Black Man.

Give back King James Version

Dat belongs to de White Man.

Black Man get up, stan’ up

Fin’ yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Black Man get up, stan’ up

Fin’ yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Yu suffer I and yu rob I;

Yu starve I, den yu kill I.

But what are yu gonna do

Now dat yu sword have turned against yu?

Black Man get up, stan’ up

Fin’ yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Black Man get up, stan’ up

Fin’ yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Bring back Maccabee Version

Dat God gave to Black man.

Give back King James Version

Dat belongs to de White Man.

Black Man get up, stan’ up

Fin yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

Black Man get up, stan’ up

Fin’ yu foot

And give Black God de glory.

– Maccabee Version, by Max Romeo

The most puzzling aspect of these lyrics is when the singer claims that God gave ‘Maccabee Version’ of the Bible to the black man in Jamaica. Why does he sing this? One possibility is that the black slaves who knew about these two Books of the Maccabees must have identified with their description of a rebellion against the Greek occupiers and oppressors of the Jews. Thus, when the white Christian missionaries began to evangelize the black Jamaican slaves and their descendants with Bibles that did not include the Books of the Maccabees, this may have made them suspicious as to why this had been done. One sources has the following explanation:

The decision of the British mission society to prohibit the printing of these books in Bibles meant that in one way or another knowledge of them became part of the folk wisdom of the Black people and when these actual writings became known they were seen as uniquely “Black.” The reggae by Max Romeo, coming out of the strong Black-consciousness of Jamaican Rastafarianism, manifests such a theme.

– Reggae reveals Church involvement in slavery, by Paul A Tidemann

In short, the early cultural memories of the Books of the Maccabees, along with the rebellion that they describe, lived on long after they had been excluded from the Bibles typically used by the black Jamaicans. From slavery to freedom, the Caribbean blacks must have identified Bibles that excluded the Maccabees as being tools of continuing white oppression. Two centuries after black slavery was abolished in Jamaica, the ‘Maccabee Version’ became simply another Reggae song from 1976.

“Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”

– Jeremiah 23:29

The Hammer of God

The Maccabee stands for Hammer in Hebrew

Part III. The Supernatural Maccabee Rebellion Against Mt. Olympus

Telepathy, Sexuality, and the War of the Maccabees
Sometimes, living men and women have been forced to use somewhat nontraditional, heterodox means in order to establish telepathic communication. Though the Church remains extremely unlikely to ever officially admit to their existence, there are, in fact, certain methods that can assist God-fearing individuals in obtaining telepathic and perhaps other supernatural abilities (See St. Judas and the Temple of the Black Diamond). Indeed, legends indicate that these somewhat unorthodox practices were of vital importance in helping Judas Maccabeus and his brothers win the civil war against the Greek occupiers of ancient Israel and their sexually degenerate, and many times uncircumcised, Jewish allies.

Apparently, Judas Maccabeus, the rebel leader, began receiving reports early on indicating that an elite cabal of homosexual Jews and Greeks were using long-distance telepathy as a part of their military operations, including coded written messages in both Greek and Hebrew. Truth be told, it is unclear whether or not the Maccabees and their religious allies were even familiar with telepathic communication. They probably had some experience with it through personal interaction with the wild, desert prophets and other religious authorities, but it is quite obvious that they had little to no idea about how to harness it effectively in order to win the war.

Historically speaking, there is some evidence that telepathy played a role in the successful slave rebellion led by Moses and Aaron against the Egyptians. Indeed, Aaron and his sister Miriam were probably both highly telepathic along with many of the other early Levites. Several scholars will also claim that forty years of wandering in the desert, where most of the Israelites fed themselves with the mysterious manna (Red Dragon fat) provided by God for years on end, eventually caused many, if not all, of the families involved to become very telepathic. Nevertheless, it is more than possible that the power of telepathy had become almost completely forgotten by most of the Israelites during the Age of the Maccabees more than a thousand years later.

Regardless of the specifics, Judas Maccabeus quickly discovered through spies that frenzied homosexual orgies, including high-powered anal and oral sex, along with the frequent, mutual swallowing of semen, may have been involved in the Greeks seemingly Divine telepathic powers. Apparently, these hyper-sexualized rituals, which took place both outdoors in public, as well in total darkness in underground chambers, were causing the participants to become demonically-possessed, telepathic beings, who were able to see through each other’s eyes. They were also using remote viewing to track rebel troop movements and hunt down those Jews still practicing Orthodox Judaism.

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Hell.

– Proverbs 5:3-5

In addition, it is quite possible that these evil, wicked enemies of God were eating each other’s feces and urine and staring directly at the sun for long periods of time in order to manifest these powers. Put bluntly, at least some of them were looking into the sun while committing sodomy. It was truly a time of the Beast 666 and his motives could be clearly seen by the sexual immorality that had completely taken over the Temple of Jerusalem. This intensified the evil in an intolerable and utterly disgusting way.

The Gentiles filled the Temple with debauchery and revelry; they amused themselves with [male] prostitutes and had intercourse with women even in the sacred court.

– II Maccabees 6:3-4

One could say that either one, or perhaps all, of these particular activities were the real cause of the homosexual Jews and Greeks developing telepathic and other supernatural powers. Because of his desperate circumstances, however, Judas Maccabeus did not have the time to verify exactly what was behind his opponent’s paranormal abilities. Because of this, he immediately ordered at least some of his followers to eat and drink their own, as well as their fellow warrior’s feces and urine. After some trial and error, those involved were told to eat only the hard, rock-like feces that contained numerous, round, small balls like the various, tiny shit-heads of little people. To develop a strong, defensible telepathic communication system, some of them stopped eating anything at all, except for whatever they could find in the wilderness, where they remained in hiding during the early part of the war. The rebels also smoked large amounts of marijuana and/or hashish to soothe their hunger pangs. The Bible states as follows:

Judas Maccabeus with nine others…withdrew himself into the wilderness, and lived in the mountains after the manner of beasts, with his company, who fed on herbs continually, lest they should be partakers of the pollution.

– II Maccabees 5:27

It is also possible that, in desperation, Judas Maccabeus allowed his married soldiers to practice oral sex with their wives, who would then swallow their husband’s semen in order to establish a strong, telepathic connection. Sometimes the link became powerful enough for the wives to see through their husbands’ eyes and hear their thoughts. It is said that more than a few of these couples became telepathic quite quickly and began having the exact same dreams. Throughout the war, married wives helped to relay strategically important messages sent by their scout husbands over long-distances. Fortunately for the Maccabees, this private, two-way method of telepathy between husband and wife eventually became impossible for the sexually perverted enemy to intercept or cause interference. The most probable explanation for this is that the Divinely-sanctioned, monogamous, heterosexual love between the two spouses may have helped to shield their messages from the almost completely homosexual Jewish and Greek telepaths trying to decipher them.

Matches are made in heaven.

– The Babylonian Talmud, Genesis Rabba 68

In three different places…are we told that heaven appoints the wife of a man.

– The Babylonian Talmud, Genesis Rabba 68

This new-found technique of undetectable, heterosexual telepathy completely enraged the sexually degenerate occupiers of the Kingdom of Israel, causing them to resort to human sacrifice and cannibalism in the Temple of Jerusalem in an attempt to increase their diabolical, supernatural powers. They also proceeded to take out their frustrations upon many of the unarmed, innocent civilians, perpetrating numerous, hideous atrocities against any and all suspected Jewish sympathizers, yet completely leaving any Greek or other foreign residents alone.

[Jason] commanded his men of war not to spare [anyone]…and to slay…[all of them]. Thus there was killing of young and old, making away of men, women, and children, slaying of virgins and infants.

– II Maccabees 5:12-13

In retrospect, the possible practice of the Maccabees in allowing or encouraging oral sex between a married man and woman, which is prohibited by Jewish law and still defined in the Dictionary as sodomy, was a sinful, ungodly way to defeat the enemies of Israel that should have never been used. Contrary to the wicked, Satanically-inspired, deceivers of the truth who might insist otherwise, Judas Maccabeus never authorized any other abnormal sexual activity in order to develop supernatural powers and severely punished any of his fellow allies who were caught practicing anything except monogamous, heterosexual vaginal intercourse within the sacred bonds of marriage. Even consensual, heterosexual fornication between two unmarried people was punished by the traditional twenty-five, extremely painful lashings with a whip, inflicted on both the male and female offenders.

Daniel, my brother, you are older than me. Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won’t heal? Your eyes have died, but you see more than I. Daniel you’re a star in the face of the sky.

– Daniel, by Elton John

Throughout the military campaign and afterwards, Judas demanded total abstinence from all his followers, even though their Greek enemies promoted, encouraged, and even celebrated degenerate sexual activity in order to achieve telepathic abilities and to summon evil powers to help them defeat the Jews. In the end, the Maccabees basically concluded that the fairly disgusting, highly unsanitary, and possibly lethal, ingestion of feces and urine was, in fact, the primary ingredient that actually helped facilitate telepathy among his soldiers. Staring directly at the sun was another probable method Judas Maccabeus utilized in order to create a strategic system of telepathy that included encoded written messages, commonly known as the Word of God.

Got a revolution behind my eyes, we got to get up and organize. Got a revolution behind my eyes, we got to get up and organize…You want a revolution behind your eyes, we got to get up and organize.

– Battleflag, by Lo Fidelity Allstars

The legends state that, although the five brothers of the Maccabees never lost their own eyesight, some of the less fortunate troops did go completely blind in their search for supernatural powers. In fact, it is claimed that the mysterious seven watchtowers of Joarib, originally set up as a defensive measure to protect the God-fearing, loyal Israelites that opposed the sexually perverted Jews and Greeks ruling over them, was little more than a 24-hour system of elite soldiers who would stand up and look directly at the sun in shifts all day long. This was also done in order to guard the headquarters of the telepathic, military intelligence corps who played a key role in winning the war of the Maccabees. Urgent written messages from the front would sometimes arrive via the sun and would then be passed on to the appropriate rebel leaders.

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream. I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been, to sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen. They talk of days for which they sit and wait, [when] all will be revealed. Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace…but not a word I heard could I relay, the story was quite clear.

“Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

– Jeremiah 23:29

The Hammer of God

The Maccabee stands for Hammer in Hebrew

Part II. The Maccabee Laws of God

The Maccabees Enforce the Laws of God
The tradition of the Maccabees within the Church, both in the West and in the East, has always been a tradition of what modern society would call law enforcement. Since the beginning of Christianity, they have actively promoted the rule of law, most especially the moral and ethical laws found in the Old Testament. Sometimes their law enforcement policies have been quite brutal. It is no coincidence that the word Maccabee is Hebrew for the word hammer, while the main text on witchcraft called Malleus Maleficarum is better known as ‘The Hammer of the Witches’.

Today, the Maccabees are playing a leading role in trying to heal the Schism between Eastern and Western Christianity. They are also a highly influential element of the Office of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, commonly known as the Inquisition.

The Maccabees & The United States Military
The five brothers of the Maccabees basically assisted in writing the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Read carefully, this code seems very Old Testament in its outlook. Literally all forms of sexual perversion are prohibited outright. Rape, adultery, sodomy, and fornication are not only grounds for demotion and possible dishonorable discharge, but can also result in criminal punishment, including prison time depending upon the severity of the offense. Even using vulgar language with sexual connotations is considered punishable. The U.S. Code of Military Justice carries some of the harshest penalties for sex crimes in the known world. A partial list of these sex offenses and their penalties are as follows:

Far more than anyone else, it has been the Maccabees, especially St. Judas Maccabeus, that have insisted upon keeping the unique tradition of an ‘officer and a gentleman’ alive and well within the United States Military. Unfortunately, this tradition has broken down in recent years and many potential problems have simply been ignored. In the past, religious Chaplains actively serving in the military were required to be ordained Roman Catholic Priests, Jewish Rabbis or Protestant Ministers. In other words, the U.S. Military only provided religious services for Jews and Christians and no one else. These days, those who practice witchcraft and even outright Pagans have also gained the ‘right’ to have their own respective denominations represented among U.S. Military Chaplains. It is only a matter of time before avowed Satanists also assert their ‘rights.’ Imagine that, a Satanic Priest serving as a chaplain in tomorrow’s military and being paid a salary using tax-payer dollars! By any standard, the Maccabees would consider this an outrage.

The United States army has recognized white witchcraft as a religion and has appointed chaplains to oversee pagan ceremonies on at least five bases. A Pentagon spokesman said yesterday that there were believed to be at least 100 witches attending covens at Fort Hood, Texas, the army’s largest base with more than 42,000 troops. So respectful has the army become of the pagan rites that security was increased at Fort Hood’s Boy Scout camp, where covens are held. The move is to deter members of Christian groups from intimidating the group. The pagans, called Wiccans, are accorded the same privileges as practitioners of Christianity, Judaism andIslam. They are encouraged to have their religious preference stamped on the metal dog-tags each soldier wears.

– Ben Fenton

What is even more outrageous is the sexual misconduct that has become rampant in today’s United States Military. Because of the unisexual, co-ed practices that are now prevalent, fornication and even adultery have become commonplace, even in places such as Iraq, an active war-zone. Allowing men and women to mingle freely may have helped the case for women’s equality, but it has also caused an almost complete break-down in the sexual morality of U.S. troops, especially among the enlisted. Even the top military academies have not escaped unscathed. There have been numerous reports of lecherous male cadets dropping their pants in front of female cadets in full anticipation of receiving oral sex. Apparently, this was what was expected of them! Grown males, with some of the highest educational achievements in the nation, were exposing themselves to female Naval, Air Force, Army and Marine cadets, with similar academic credentials, as a standard hazing practice.

They covered…the mark of their circumcision and abandoned the holy covenant; they allied themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves to wrongdoing.

– I Maccabees 1:15

This is a far cry from the U.S. Military traditions of yesteryear in which well-dressed, unmarried young men and women would attend dances, balls, and celebrations in their finest attire and would dance and sing eloquently to the approval of the older married men and women with families. It is to be hoped that the age-old tradition of an ‘officer and a gentleman’ that originates from the devout, chaste behavior of numerous Israelite warriors throughout history will someday return.

The Five Brothers of the Maccabees & Their Legacy
More than two thousand years ago, the victorious Maccabees and their followers lit a candle that miraculously lasted for eight days before burning out. That candle continues to survive within the Roman Catholic Church and within Orthodox Judaism. To a lesser extent, it also resides in the modern Evangelical Protestant Church and still flickers within the United States Military. It can be seen in nature itself as when crows, pigeons and other birds will forcibly bob their heads and peck at the ground as if they were living hammers pounding on the dirt, or concrete, in tribute and remembrance of St. Judas Maccabeus, the hammer, and his brothers. Many traditional religious believers will insist that this is no mere coincidence. The actual names of the five brothers of the Maccabees, the sons of Matthias, are as follows:

St. John Gaddi- John, the Treasure St. Simon Thassi- Simon, the Zealous Guide St. Judas Maccabeus- Judas, the Hammer St. Eleazar Avaran- Eleazar, the Piercer St. Jonathan Apphus- Jonathan, the Wary

As mentioned previously, these five brothers were, in fact, the very first Saints of the Christian Church before it split into different sects. Even though they were never Christian in their own life-times, they were instrumental in organizing and carrying out the rebellion and subsequent war against the pagan Greco-Roman gods of old. They willingly followed Rabbi Jesus and His rebellion against Zeus and Apollo after His death on the cross when ‘He descended into Hell.’ Wikipedia states the following:

The Roman Catholic Church regarded the Holy Maccabees as martyrs in their Calendar of Saints, although this feast was suppressed in 1969. The Eastern Orthodox Church continues to celebrate the Holy Maccabean Martyrs on August 1, the first day of the Dormition Fast.

As Christian Saints they are considered by the Church to reside in the Kingdom of Heaven. Their status among the Jews remains less clear, but even the non-Christian Jerusalem Talmud states on numerous occasions, ‘Blessed be the Angels and the Saints.’ Because of the sharp influx of Gentiles into the early Church, there was a slight hesitation among some early Christians in accepting mere Jews equally with the true Saints of the Church such as the Apostles. In the end, these God-fearing Gentiles had no problem in accepting the Jewish Saints known as the Maccabees as part of the overall Canon. Arnaldo Momigliano writes, ‘The Fathers of the Church persuaded their flock…that the seven “Maccabean” brothers deserved to be treated as Christian saints.’

May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus, the Hammer of God.

NAME: Hanukkah, which means ‘Dedication’, ‘Establishing’, or ‘Consecration’ in Hebrew.HEBREW NAME: חֲנֻכָּה or חנוכה.TITLE: Festival of Lights, Festival of Dedication.DEFINITION: An eight-day Jewish Holiday celebrated every year during the winter.HOLIDAY: A joyous, family-centered Jewish religious festival pre-dating Christianity by nearly 200 years.RELIGION: Ancient Holiday of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism.FOUNDER: Judas Maccabaeus and his fellow Maccabee brothers.RECOGNITION: A perpetual, yearly celebration marking the retaking, purification, and rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by the rebel Jewish forces of the Maccabees after defeating the Pagan Greek military occupation.ORIGIN: First established and celebrated in Jerusalem on the 25th of Kislev, 165 BC.DATES: Always begins on the 25th of Kislev and ends on the 2nd or 3rd of Tevet (Hebrew Calendar).DURATION: Lasts for eight days with an additional candle being lit after sunset for each passing day.LONGETIVITY: Annually observed by Jews from around the world for the past 2,175 years.TRADITIONS: Ritual candle lighting, religious singing, specific prayers, gifts of money and games.MEANING: Sometimes religious freedom must be defended by violent, armed revolution.MIRACLE: When it came time to light the Temple Menorah, there was only enough holy oil left for a single day, yet somehow God was able to cause the oil to last and burn for a miraculous eight entire days.WORDS: Hallel, Al-ha-Nissim, Hanukkah addition (Prayers), Brachot (Blessing), Ma’oz Tzur, Hanerot Halalu (Hymns), and Psalms 30, 67, 91, Numbers 6:22 through 8:4, Zechariah 2:14-4:7, I Kings 7:40-50 (Readings).SIGNIFICANCE: Represents one of the most miraculous, statistically impossible, and highly implausible series of military victories in the history of the world.BIBLE: Book of the Maccabees I (4:36-59), Book of the Maccabees II (10:1-8)TALMUD: The Babylonian Talmud, Sabbath 21-24a, 45a, and 118, Sotah 41a, Gittin 57b,REFERENCE: 1) Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, Ch. 5-11, by Flavius Josephus, 2) The Scroll of Antiochus, (Megillat Antiochus), 3) The Gospel of John, mentioned in John 10:22

The Maccabee Laws

Ten Commandments
I. I am the LORD your God. You will have no other gods but Me.
II. You will not use the name of the LORD in vain.
III. You will honor the Sabbath day.
IV. You will honor your father and mother.
V. You will not kill.
VI. You will not commit adultery
VII. You will not steal.
VIII. You will not lie.
IX. You will not envy your neighbor’s wife.
X. You will not envy your neighbor’s property.